Popham, W. J. (2008). Transformative assessment. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
"Formative assessment is a planned process in which assessment-elicited evidence of students' status is used by teachers to adjust their ongoing instructional procedures or by students to adjust their current learning tactics" (p. 6).
Key Points
Planned process
Not a test but a process
Completed by teachers, learners or both
Teacher has a goal of what they want to learn from the assessment results
Formal and/or informal assessment
Assessment-Elicited Evidence
Adjustments are based on evidence (data) of current level of mastery
Assessment procedure (comment marking, exit cards, game, graphic organizer, simulation, peer/self assessment, quiz/test, project, portfolio, etc.) is designed to produce the evidence
Teachers adjust instruction
Evidence is used to make adjustments to ongoing instruction
Learners adjust learning tactics (21st Century Skill)
Evidence is used to change methods they are applying while trying to learn
Implementation Options
To make an immediate instructional adjustment
To make a near-future instructional adjustment
To make a last-chance instructional adjustment
To make a learning tactic adjustment
To promote a classroom climate shift
Source: Popham, J. W. (2009, 2011)
Enhancing Assessment with Technology
Milnes (2006) describes the following reasons for enhancing formative assessment with technology. He recommends using technology to:
to provide "feed information back to students in ways that enable the students to learn better
eliminated the drudgery of assessment
assessing students more accurately, efficiently, and quickly
make evaluating student skills unobtrusive and easy
individualized assessment
immediate nature of the assessment
create virtual real-time picture of which students need helps, where they need it, and how the teachers can help them best
easy of tabulation and re-organization of the data (data mining)
Grimm (April 2, 2010) describes the following reason for enhancing formative assessment with technology.
enables teachers to embed assessment into instruction and provide immediate feedback.
Items to Keep in Mind When Enhancing Formative Assessment with Technology
Decide what you want to learn from the assessments
Set goals - have long-terms goals and assess regularly
Explain the purposes of the activity to students
Keep assessments anonymous (depend on author). Do not grade assessments
Present your results to class
Focus on areas where students are falling behind.
Research Based
Consistent formative assessment can increase achievement, especially for low achievers
One Definition of Formative Assessment
Popham, W. J. (2008). Transformative assessment. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
"Formative assessment is a planned process in which assessment-elicited evidenceof students' status is used by teachers to adjust their ongoing instructional procedures
or by students to adjust their current learning tactics" (p. 6).
Key Points
Source: Popham, J. W. (2009, 2011)
Enhancing Assessment with Technology
Milnes (2006) describes the following reasons for enhancing formative assessment with technology. He recommends using technology to:
to provide "feed information back to students in ways that enable the students to learn better
eliminated the drudgery of assessment
assessing students more accurately, efficiently, and quickly
make evaluating student skills unobtrusive and easy
individualized assessment
immediate nature of the assessment
create virtual real-time picture of which students need helps, where they need it, and how the teachers can help them best
easy of tabulation and re-organization of the data (data mining)
Grimm (April 2, 2010) describes the following reason for enhancing formative assessment with technology.
enables teachers to embed assessment into instruction and provide immediate feedback.
Items to Keep in Mind When Enhancing Formative Assessment with Technology
Decide what you want to learn from the assessments
Set goals - have long-terms goals and assess regularly
Explain the purposes of the activity to students
Keep assessments anonymous (depend on author). Do not grade assessments
Present your results to class
Focus on areas where students are falling behind.
Research Based
Consistent formative assessment can increase achievement, especially for low achievers